Democratic House Rep. Files Marriage Equality Bill In Texas

The bill would also repeal a statutory prohibition against the recognition of civil unions or similar relationships entered into by two people of the same sex in another state.

Burnam filed an identical bill in the regular session. The bill was sent to the House State Affairs committee and did not receive a hearing.

Burnam said in a Wednesday statement following the Supreme Court’s ruling that he planned to file the bill, citing the Supreme Court’s opinion on DOMA.

“The Supreme Court found today that the federal government acted to ‘impose a disadvantage, a separate status, and so a stigma upon all who enter into same-sex marriages,’” Burnam said in the statement. “I can assure you the Texas Legislature did the same. As such, it is time to renounce our homophobic state laws and usher in marriage equality in Texas.”

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Burnam also threw a little shade in Gov. Rick Perry's direction, emphasizing the importance of equality and chastising him for the recent attempts to restrict women's rights.

Burnam said: “I call on Governor Perry to add marriage equality to the special session call. Clearly granting equal rights to all Texans is more urgent than imposing restrictions on women’s health and liberty based on junk science and sham medical research.”

He continues:

“It is the shame of our state that we continually have to wait for a federal judge to make us do the right thing,” Burnam said. “It happened with segregated schools, segregated parks and segregated housing. Let’s not let it happen with segregated marriage rights.”

According to The Horn, "The bill would amend state law to extend parental, property and other legal rights of marriage to same-sex couples."

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Republicans control the legislature in Texas, but it's good to see these bills being pushed forward. The debate has to be forced for change to occur.

The Great State of Texas could be much greater if Perry and his fellow Republicans changed their hypocritical attitude against the gay citizens of their state, not only on marriage, but on all forms of discrimination.